Many forms of readers that read data embedded in printed patterns exist. Data embedded in a spatially varying pattern is generally referred to as a “code” or as “encoded data” and a reader for decoding the data from the pattern is referred to as a “code reader.”
Existing code readers typically use either a camera or a scanning light beam to read the encoded data. For example, scanners used at the check-out in grocery stores are examples of code readers using scanning light beams. Line scanners (also sometimes referred to as “one-dimensional cameras”) are another example of code readers, in which an object with a pattern printed thereon and a line camera are moved past each other, as is done e.g. in fax machines or flat-bed scanners. Two-dimensional (2-D) camera based systems provide yet another example of code readers, where a 2-D camera acquires the image and then processes it to determine the data encoded therein.
All of these code readers are relatively expensive systems that require many pixels, substantial image processing capabilities, or/and assemblies that include mechanically moving parts that are prone to breaking. In addition, code readers using cameras and line scanners are sensitive to ambient light conditions and object placement and require careful selection of optics, e.g. focusing elements, and electronics processing. While code readers such as laser scanners may be more tolerant to ambient light and may function without focusing, they use cumbersome mechanical assemblies.
For the reasons described above, including existing code readers in e.g. consumer electronic devices or medical assemblies that may require reading of codes is often not technically possible, has prohibitively high complexity, and/or is simply too expensive. In particular, as modern electronics are becoming more and more ubiquitous in healthcare, medical equipment is often provided with electronic components and algorithms to sense, measure, and monitor living beings. For example, diabetes is a lifelong disease affecting glucose levels in millions of people across the world, often with dire consequences. Modern electronics enable managing this disease by providing glucose measuring devices (generally referred to as “glucose meters”) to people with diabetes. A diabetic person can put a drop of his or her blood on a glucose metering strip, insert the strip with the blood into the glucose meter, and find out a glucose level based on the tests that the glucose meter performs on the blood in the strip. In order for a glucose meter to perform its measurements correctly, the meter often needs information regarding the glucose strip, such as e.g. the nature and amounts of chemical compounds included in a particular strip. It would be desirable to be able to encode this information into a code that can be provided on a strip and to be able to supply every glucose meter with a code reader that can decode the information from such codes on the strips. In this context, as well as with other medical device assemblies, consumer electronics, or electronics in general, low cost and simplicity of a code reader is critical for its viability in the marketplace.